Hover your mouse over the beginning left top edge of your video on the timeline. You'll see a quarter circle cursor. Hold down your left mouse, drag right. The further you drag the longer it takes to change from black to full opacity. Note the curve starts at the bottom and moves up. You'll see a readout. The slope controls how qucikly you fade in. To fade out repeat on the right edge and just reverse dragging left. The difference is your start at the top or at full opacity and the further you drag left the longer it takes to fade out. Its simpler in the doing than the explaining. Do it once or twice and you'll never forget. Cross fade works by dragging one event over the other. The further you drag the longer the time to cross fade. The larger the "X" area the longer the transition.:-)